NBC star and hot comic brings latest ‘act’ to Borgata for four shows July 13-14
Now, you were at NYU when you first started?
Yeah.
So you were in New York obviously during 9/11? Where were you on that date?
I was in school. I lived in a dorm that was downtown. So I was like downtown. (Coughing). Sorry.
Is that a remnant of being in the city on 9/11?
No. I was downtown and I was pretty close but — me and other kids from the dorm just started like walking uptown and, yeah, [it was] insane.
So, being there on this historic day what do you remember?
What do I remember? I mean I don’t know if people really want me to do like a 9/11 recap; I’m trying to get them to go to a comedy show, right? Do you ask that in every interview, ‘Where were you on 9/11?’
Well, I mean if you were in the city as a student, it would be a good perspective, but we don’t have to discuss it. On your blog, you write ‘Thanks to Louis C.K. for figuring out the Web.’ You know what I’m talking about there?
Yes.
I’m assuming you mean how to monetize your material in this digital age?
Yeah, I mean just how he, you know — I was with him when he was editing a special and he told me he was going to do the five dollar thing and I wondered if that would really work, if people would download a file that big, if he would be able to get the word out without traditional marketing. And it really worked. And people seemed to really respond to it. As soon as he did it, everyone was asking me, ‘Are you going to do the same thing? Could you do the same thing? Like, this is great please do it!’ And so, it just seemed like, all right, well, that seems to be a model that people respond to. You know, there’s so much frustration when you want to watch a show like, ‘OK, I want to watch Game of Thrones, is that on Netflix?’ No. ‘Is it on iTunes?’ No. Well where is it? I pay like a ton of money a month, like there must be somewhere where I’m like able to get it. And his thing kind of played to that simplicity of, like, it’s five dollars, just get it and you can watch it on anything.
It’s almost a model similar to the record industry now.
Well, you know Radiohead kind of did it before him even and did their whole pay-anything-you-want model or whatever and I think with music it’s a little bit easier because you can just get mp3s on any different site. There’s no — the thing is, the difference with music is you can get it on Amazon or iTunes or you know on any other site that sells mp3s, whereas in video there’s this whole kind of drive to have exclusivity. So if it’s something on Hulu, it’s not on Netflix. If it’s something on iTunes, it’s not on Netflix. You know, there are things like that so that’s the difference.
I haven’t seen any of the clips or anything from your Buried Alive tour.
There are no clips! It’s a live show, so I don’t have a video out yet.
But nobody has bootlegged it on YouTube or anything like that?
No, I kind of tell people no videotaping or any of that because when people see it live, I want them to hear the stuff for the first time, so I don’t want it to be like ruined by someone who’s bootlegging the whole show on YouTube.
Yeah, I guess that’s another frustration that’s special for comedians, whereas bands get their shows bootlegged all the time on YouTube, but people still buy the records. But, like you’re saying, you don’t want people to have the ability to watch the show on YouTube or clips from it and not go see the show or to buy the special when it’s available for five bucks or something like that.
Yeah, it’s a totally different thing and I’m not sure people always understand it. You know, I think when people videotape it they’re not doing it with malicious intent, but they don’t understand what you just said, about how if you put like all of my big bits on YouTube then someone will just watch it and then come to the live show and be like, ‘Oh, well I’ve heard that before.’ And to produce like an hour of material, you know, it’ll take like seven or eight months or even a year to write a whole hour. It’s not like [a stand-up] just gets up there and says whatever is in his head. It’s almost like writing a play; it’s a very thought out thing. So if it’s kind of bootlegged everywhere, you get kind of screwed.
You graduated NYU with a marketing degree is that correct?
Yes.
How has that helped you with your comedy career?
During the spring of 2006, three months before Lucky Louie premiered on HBO, it was obvious that Louis C.K. was on his way to becoming the hardest working man in show business.
'I was at a [New York] Knicks game recently and saw a guy use a new T-shirt gun at that game. He was shooting about 20 shirts in the crowd in five seconds. It was crazy. Some celebrities are for stricter gun control laws. I’m for looser T-shirt gun control laws. I would love to drive around the city and just shoot T-shirts into the streets and see what people would do.'
Exclusive, long-term deals are pretty much a relic today. Although there are a handful of artists whose value to a casino is worth a multiple-play contract, the vast majority of showroom bookings are one-and-done one-night-stands.
A comprehensive listing of entertainment coming to the Atlantic City casinos, Boardwalk Hall and Bader Field.
Two years ago, the mere suggestion that she would simultaneously be executive producing network sitcoms — and starring in one of them — would have probably gotten a bigger laugh than any of Whitney Cummings’ stand-up material.
"When that piece of thing was falling out of the sky I said that I was going to try to go outside and try to get hit by that thing and try to commit suicide, but nobody would see it as a suicide though, so I was going to try to take advantage of it."
“This show is completely scripted. This show is meant to look more like a movie than a TV show. And my comedy is very different than Larry David’s comedy. We have different sensibilities.”
Speaking with comedian Jim Norton recently made me miss my old high school buddies from back home. It conjured up memories of us guys gathered around in our leather jackets, smoking cigarettes in the...
Cyndi Lauper returned to Atlantic City last Sunday at the House of Blues. Grandmaster Flash was guest DJ at Borgata's mixx nightclub last Saturday. Comic Louis C.K. perf...
With one Emmy and four nominations under his belt for comedy writing (Late Night with Conan O'Brien, The Chris Rock Show), a strong and steady stand up career, plus the completion of the first season of his new sitcom on HBO, comedian Louis C.K. is feeling kinda "lucky." With both Lucky Louie and his stand up act, Louis C.K. brings us a raw look at family life, marriage and relationships in a way that is real, sometimes ugly, and always laugh-out-loud funny. I recently spoke with this writer, producer, stand-up comedian and actor about his road to success, his future plans, and his need for a little free time. Dave Peña: Congratulations on the first season of Lucky Louie on HBO. What has the show done for your career? Louis C.K.: Well, it's definitely noticeable in the clubs. When I go out to do stand-up I pretty much sell out every show, and people recognize me in the street and stuff, so it's fun. If it stays on TV it'll be even better. DP: Are you planning to produce more episodes? LCK: We're hoping so. They hired us to write eight more scripts, but they haven't pulled the...
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